Galway ring road ruling by Bord Pleanála delayed again

The project is expected to cost at least €1bn if completed.

A long-awaited Bord Pleanála ruling on the proposed N6 Galway ring road has been pushed out again to December.

The decision had been anticipated on Friday, November 19, after several deferrals, but is now expected around December 3 at the earliest.

Around 500 landowners are affected by the proposed 18km ring road running from the west of the city near Barna to the existing M6 motorway.

The project is expected to cost at least €1bn if completed. 

The proposed route which Galway County Council submitted to Bord Pleanála in October 2018 involved a lengthy oral hearing which was suspended due to Covid-19 and resumed online.

If approved, it will involve the removal of 54 houses – 44 of which will have to be demolished, even though most of these are lived in.

Business groups and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil politicians are firmly behind the project, with supporters highlighting the need to plan for the city’s projected population increase of 50,000 by 2040.

However, Independent Galway West TD Catherine Connolly, an advocate of a light rail option, and Green Party senator Pauline O’Reilly oppose the plan, warning of urban sprawl, breaches of climate targets, and lack of investment in public transport approaches.

Galway West TD Éamon Ó Cuív has expressed concern that Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan did not refer to the road at all in recent Dáil comments on a review of the Galway transport strategy.

The review, which will take place next year according to Ryan, will include a feasibility study for light rail.

“I think it is very significant that there is no mention of the ring road as one of the key elements of the existing strategy that needs to be delivered,” Mr Ó Cuív told The Connacht Tribune this week.

Last month, Green Party councillor for Connemara Alastair McKinstry warned of a need to be prepared for a possible negative decision on the proposed Galway city ring road project.

Cllr McKinstry told Galway County Council that it seems unlikely a positive decision will stand up against the Climate Act.

Mr Ryan has stated in public recently that the final cost of the Galway ring road is likely to be “much higher” than anything speculated.

The 22-year-old project has already cost €35m - as in €14.7m on the initial outer bypass abandoned after the ECJ ruling, and an estimated €20m on the current project.

A former Dublin County Council civil engineer Cormac Rabbitt has recently appealed to Ryan to seek EU permission to revisit an original route.

Rabbitt says the first route for the Galway outer bypass, which was shelved due to impact on sensitive habitats, could prove to be less harmful overall to the environment and cheaper than the current plan.

Rabbitt, who is chair of the lobbying group Metro Dublin, argues that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) had left it open to the Government to seek a derogation from the EU Habitats Directive when it ruled against the first 12km-long outer bypass route in 2013.